Cutting Room: Vodafone and O2 in B2B power match

The mobile industry is moving to embrace unified comms and ‘cloud’ computing in 2011, and operators Vodafone, O2 and Orange are putting stakes in the ground

Our 2011 predictions tell of an industry pinning its hopes on certain things. One major feature of the industry’s confidence for the year ahead, through a difficult economic climate, is the emergence of cloud computing in the mobile industry.

Vodafone’s move with Microsoft is the clearest sign yet of its coming-of-age in this market. It is the area of computing Microsoft most clearly leads. Importantly, dealers are talking about it excitedly, as the final piece of the jigsaw to make businesses truly mobile and bring home flexible working.

Cloud computing is not a fad. Twitter and Facebook are 21st century phenomenons, and the ability to store pictures, blog and access information online is second nature to an influential part of the mass market.

Outsourcery, the completely recast old Genesis business, is a Microsoft gold partner and a growing business, one that struggled in 2010 to persuade the market of its services, but finished the year with key support from Nokia and O2.

The latter will surely put significant focus on Outsourcery this year.